Tag: God Realization

The nervous system has two duties. The nerves allow you to interact with the world; and, as the yogis of ancient times discovered, the nerves also serve to connect you with God. The life force in man’s body ordinarily flows outward from the brain and spine through the nerves to the senses and their external experiences.

Whenever the word Tapasya (penance, austerity) comes up, most of us imagine some sort of severe mortification of the body such as not eating food for months, or meditating while standing on one leg, or praying while immersed in a frigid lake. The numerous Amar Chitra Katha pictures which we have seen in our childhood immediately come to mind! However, as Swami Brahmananda, who was a God-realized sage and a direct disciple of Sri Ramakrishna has explained below, real tapasya is not about torturing the body, but is about reforming our inner nature by controlling the mind and rooting out its negative tendencies such as selfishness, greed, fear, anger and lust.

We have remembered to a greater extent than you all have, and what we have remembered is that we are Source Energy Beings. The process of becoming who you really are goes beyond the knowing of that truth. A remembering of who you really are involves living it. It involves being the truth, which is that all beings are unconditional love incarnate and that we are all exploring Source, which is another way of saying that we are all exploring ourselves. You, because of the density in which you chose to incarnate, had many other aspects of self that you could identify with, besides that true nature, and so you did.

Purity forms the absolute bedrock of spirituality. Purity of heart comprises frankness, innocence, straightforwardness and absence of all evil thoughts. Only the pure in heart can attain to Samadhi (God-realization). Through his narration of enclosed story, Swami Vivekananda, who had himself attained to Nirvikalpa Samadhi, has tried to emphasize this very truth. This story which was a favorite of Swamiji’s, having been recounted to him over and over again in his childhood by his nurse, was retold by him to a small group of disciples at Thousand Island Park, in America.

There is an age old misconception prevailing in India concerning two groups of people: Sannyasins and householders (those who have married). The misconception centers on how they view each other. Sannyasins, who are monks, who have renounced the world and its material comforts, tend to feel spiritually superior and look down upon householders as lesser mortals, who are caught up in the attachments and entanglements of Maya. Householders similarly look down upon Sannyasins, as lazy people, who are not willing to work hard to earn their daily bread, who like to live the easy life off of public funds. Through the enclosed story, Swami Vivekananda has resolved this misconception by bringing forth the truth that each person is great in his own place. Doing his or her duties in the world selflessly, a householder too can attain to Moksha, just as a Sannyasin meditating in the Himalayas can. The emotion (bhavana) of selflessness with which one performs one’s duty is what is of utmost importance. The nature of the duty itself is entirely irrelevant.